Facebook considered selling the data of users to companies in 2012

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook considered selling users' data to
companies some years ago but later decided to act against it, the
media reported. According to Arstechnica.com that viewed an
unredacted court document, Facebook staff in 2012 considered
charging companies at least $250,000 for "access to one of its
primary troves of user data - the Graph API".

"In April 2014, Facebook changed the way the previously permissive
Graph API works. "The social media giant restricted some data
access and eliminated all access to the earlier version by June
2015," the report said on Friday. A failure on Facebook's part to
adequately redact a public court document revealed this
information.

According to Arstechnica. com, Facebook gave "extended access to
the v1.0 of Graph API to numerous companies not only including
Nissan and Royal
Bank of Canada but now also to Chrysler/Fiat, Lyft, Airbnb, and Netflix, among
others".

A Facebook spokesperson, however, was quoted as saying that
Chrysler/Fiat and the other companies, besides Nissan and Royal
Bank of Canada, were listed erroneously in the court document.

The news comes on the heel of the British Parliament obtaining a
set of internal Facebook documents from US software company
Six4Three that has sued the social media giant over what it claims
are fraudulent breaches of contract. Facebook, however, defended
itself, saying that Six4Three's "claims have no merit, and we will
continue to defend ourselves vigorously". Now defunct, Six4Three in
a new filing to a California lawsuit in May 2018 alleged that
Facebook collected information on users and their friends through
its apps.